Empty cabinets, spy hunt: Kyiv residents brace for Russian assault | Russia-Ukraine disaster Information

Residents and servicemen alike hunt for Russian spies in Kyiv and supermarkets wrestle with logistics as an extended Russian navy convoy advances slowly in the direction of the town.

The seventh day of Russia’s battle on Ukraine started with the sounds of sirens warning of air raids once more on Wednesday morning whereas numerous explosions and shelling incidents have been heard in a single day.

Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the enduring Independence Sq. in Kyiv, has been surrounded by barricades with sandbags and anti-tank Czech hedgehogs, as a 64km (40-mile) convoy of Russian tanks and different automobiles advances slowly in the direction of the town.

Spanish ham, French cheese, Swiss chocolate and mangoes delivered straight from Thailand final week, simply earlier than the battle, are left on the cabinets of Silpo, a grocery store chain, within the Pecherskyi district within the metropolis of practically three million folks.

The entire cheaper meals are gone. There isn’t a bread or greens, no oils of any form, and no meat or sausages.

“We’re anticipating a supply tomorrow, it’s not that straightforward logistically,” Konstantin, a cashier in a face masks adorned with a tiny Ukrainian coat of arms, informed Al Jazeera.

Not removed from Silpo, a dozen folks stand patiently close to the doorways of a pharmacy. It snowed in Kyiv final evening, however the snow is melting, and the tweeting of birds is just not silenced by the same old drone of visitors.

Individuals line up in entrance of a pharmacy in Kyiv [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]

“It’s one man out, one man in,” Leonid Goncharenko, a 79-year-old former firefighter, informed Al Jazeera, pointing on the doorways. He wants a number of tablets and drops for his diabetes and a coronary heart situation, and can wait patiently to get in.

Aside from the queues in entrance of grocery retailers and supermarkets, the streets are empty. Individuals trickle out and in of the close by underground metro station-turned bomb shelter.

Teams of stern, gun-toting navy officers in khaki uniforms and masks test the identification of anybody getting into the station.

An analogous group of servicemen stops and checks every automobile and truck. Drivers and passersby eagerly present their ID playing cards, opening luggage and automobile boots.

“There are Russian spies working in Kyiv already, they spot the placement of strategic websites, now we have to search out and detain them,” one of many servicemen informed Al Jazeera.

Nearly each condo constructing has its personal chat room in WhatsApp or Viber, the place residents alternate information, suggestions and rumours.

An aged man sitting on a bench, a stranger knocking on anyone’s door, a foreign-looking man taking photos – everybody seems to be suspicious, and teams of neighbours typically rush to such folks asking what they’re doing within the neighbourhood.

“It’s our civil responsibility – to be vigilant,” Tetiana Dobuzhanska, 34, who lives in a five-storey constructing of the Pecherskyi district, informed Al Jazeera.

With extra reporting from Kyiv by Mansur Mirovalev

Nearly each condo constructing has its personal chat room in Whatsapp or Viber, the place residents alternate information, suggestions and rumours [Mansur Mirovalev/Al Jazeera]